Polling Students in Google Classroom - Quick Formative Assessment

Google classroom has become a powerful tool in many EdTech toolboxes. Since the Google for Education release of Classroom, it has quickly become a go-to tool for digital communication and paperless classrooms. 

Classroom's communication features include:

1. Posting Announcements (Links, videos, and attachments)
2. Posting Assignments (Links, videos, and attachments)
3. Posting Google Forms (Polls and Assessments)
4. Posting Discussion Questions (Backchannel and Exit Slips)
5. Paperless distribution and collection of activities.  

Google recently updated the question feature in Google Classroom to include multiple choice questions. This will be a great tool for to collect formative data from students. The Google for Education Blog posted these 4 suggestions for ways to use the new polling options:

• Post exit tickets
• Help students self-monitor
• Guide student discussions
• Get feedback on your lesson from students.

Source: Google For Education Blog

Learn more about Google Classroom
Google Classroom Tips, Tricks, and Training Resources

What are the Essential Skills for an #EdTech Coach?

"If you were given the chance to develop and Ed Tech coach certificate - what college courses would it need to have?"

My first thought is to not focus on the tech tools when I explore this question. I know that sometimes the wow factor of a tool can be a great hook, but wow only carries one so far. For example, my Masters in Instructional Technology courses seemed to primarily focus on some "cool" tools and less on the pedagogy connected to good teaching. Today, most of the tools I explored no longer exist but good teaching is still good teaching. (Ever heard of HyperStacks? I am not sure I remember what these do, but I remember the name.)

Today, I try to always start support educators by asking why questions. If we don't know why we are doing something, I always wonder why we are trying to add tech to do it differently? We then explore how you might approach your goals without tech in the equation. Once we have a pedagogical plan, we can add some EdTech to the recipe.

What Are Your Teaching Fundamentals? (Edutopia Article)

Sample Teaching Recipes From an EdTech PD Session

I always try to emphasize that the best EdTech does not have the power to make a bad lesson great. It can even sometimes make a good lesson not so great. Great teaching must always come first or the power of instructional technology is most likely wasted time.

I hate wasting time!

Here are a few of the resources that might help EdTech and Instructional Coaches support teachers and students.

• The ISTE Standards for Educators might be a great starting point to help teachers focus on essential skills that can be supported with EdTech. 
• The ISTE Standards for Coaches is a great place to start building your coaching mindset. 
• The ISTE Standards for Students can help planning from the student perspective. 
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers Who Use Technology is another resource to explore EdTech in the classroom. 
• If you are a Google district I would consider using the Google Training Courses as part of the course plan. These are well put together and focus on skills before the tools. 

Here are a few additional resources that might support building a Coaching Mindset.

• Skills Connected to the 4 Cs (Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity.) 
• Teaching and Learning Book Recommendations (Great educational books organized by topics.) 
• Student-Centered Learning (Less us, more them!) 
• Formative Assessment (Quick formative tools are a great way to hook educators) 
• Coaching Pedagogy (10 Tips for Instructional Coaches) 
• Leadership (Resources to support teachers as leaders) 
• 10 Great Hashtags Educators Should Be Exploring
• Innovative Educational Organizations to Follow on Twitter
• 25 Innovative Educators to Follow on Twitter 

What courses/concepts/skills/resources do you think are essential for an #EdTech Coach's Mindset?

Workflow - Own Those Tabs in Chrome

I've made no secret that Chrome is my go-to web browser. One reason I love Chrome is the fact that that as a school our top collaboration and creation resource is Google Drive. I also love Chrome because of the powerful Extensions and Chrome Apps that can be added to improve the user experience. Many of my favorite extensions help me be more efficient. I particularly love extensions that help me manage the multiple tabs a frequently have open.

Two of my favorites are OneTab and TabCloud. These two extensions are similar and I suggest experimenting with the features of both before decided to choose one over the other.

Whenever you find yourself with too many tabs, click the OneTab icon to convert all of your tabs into a list. When you need to access the tabs again, you can either restore them individually or all at once. You can also share the collection of tabs as a web page. Great way to share multiple sites with someone.

TabCloud allows you to save any window session and restore it at a later date or on another computer. Effectively allowing you to sync open tabs between multiple computers.

Additional Chrome Tab Tools

• TabCarousel - Cycle through your Chrome tabs automatically. Great for monitoring information on a TV with a computer attached. 
• Tab Scissors - This extension splits a window into two at the selected tab.
• Tab Glue - This extension glues windows together.
• Tab Snooze - Close unnecessary tabs and make them magically reappear when you need them.
• Tab Resize - Split Screen made easy. Resize the CURRENT tab and tabs to the RIGHT into layouts on separate windows. w/ Multi Monitor Support.

Learn more about Chrome Extensions and Apps

Recharge Learning - Chrome 101

Formative Assessment - Powerful Teaching and Learning

A formative assessment is a tool to provide feedback to students. It is also used to help teachers check for understanding to guide future learning. Formative assessments can be digital or not. The traditional view of formative assessments is that they are not graded, but I would argue that a graded quiz can be a formative assessment if it is used to provide feedback and drive future instruction. 

The best formative assessments help teachers and students understand where they are in the learning process. You don't know what you don't know. 

Why is formative assessment important for teachers and students? Please comment below with your thoughts and ideas. 

Formative assessments should also be easy for teachers and students to create and manage. We've put together a list of some of our favorite digital formative assessment tools.

Formative Assessment Resources for Teachers and Students

Some of our non-digital formative assessment tools:

• Give 1 - Get 1
• Whiteboarding
• Note Card/ Post-Its Exit Slips
• Fist to Five
• Four Corners
• 3 - 2 - 1

More assessment tools:

• Wicked EdTech - Formative Assessment
• 56 Different Examples of Formative Assessment
• Tools for Formative Assessment

How do you use formative assessments in your classroom? What are your favorite resources connected to formative assessment?

What is Your Favorite #EdTech Resource?

I decided to share my current favorites in 6 categories we use to do most of our coaching. If you ask me the same question next week, I might have a completely different set of choices . . . Stay tuned.  (Many of these tools can be applied across multiple categories, so take the labels with a bit of skepticism.)

• Collaboration: Google Drive 
  (Suite of resources to collaboratively create Documents, Presentations, Drawings, and much more.)
• Communication: Remind 
  (Remind (formerly Remind101) is a safe, free way for teachers to text message students and keep in touch with parents.)
• Creativity: Thinglink 
  (Annotate image and video content with notes and rich media links.)
• Critical Thinking: TEDEd 
  (Build a lesson around any TED-Ed Original, TED Talk or YouTube video.)
• Curiosity: Wonderopolis 
  (Check out a wonder of the day.)
• Assessment: Formative 
  (Formative runs on any internet connected device and is optimized for an 1:1, BYOD, flipped or blended classroom.)

If you want a few more here is our full resource site built with the help of my PLN: Recharge Learning

Last year we stopped sending out emails with weekly tips and instead asked interested staff to subscribe to this collaborative blog: Teaching and Learning

Recently we've also started sharing a Chrome Extension of the week with staff on our Instructional Tech Page. Bitmoji was quite a hit during finals week. 

What are your favorite instructional technology tools or resources? 

Please share your favorite #EdTech Tool or Resource in the comments below!